1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns digital data transmission systems.
In the realm of digital communications, the use of binary digits, commonly known as "bits", where each symbol is allowed to take one of only two values, is widespread. For certain applications, sets of eight bits are grouped together as a "byte".
2. Description of Related Art
In order to transmit several identical channels over a single, higher rate, bearer, it is also common practise to "bit interleave" the bits from each channel, although recently some national and international standards have suggested that "byte interleaving" should be used. In this case, the high rate bearer carries 8 consecutive bits from the first input channel, followed by 8 consecutive bits from the second, and so on. It is axiomatic that byte interleaving uses eight times as much storage (for example, D-type bistables) as does bit interleaving for the same type of basic processing.